Bastila Finally Understands her Heart
by Attalus
Summary: This is a reworking of the ending of the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic which fills in gaps in the storyline and completes Bastila and Revan's Romance.


"...I am nothing..." Darth Malak fell to the deck of the Star Forge, bleeding from a dozen wounds. Revan looked around, then turned back to the body of his former apprentice. He touched his brow with the handle of his now-inactive lightsaber, still warm from the battle now over. It became, in his mind, a kind of salute, not to a brave foe - in fact, Malak had always been a bit of a coward and a sneak - but to a chapter in his life. The profound emotional upheaval that he had undergone was suddenly gone, and a new one was beginning.

Suddenly, he frowned as the floor seemed to vibrate under his feet. In the intensity of his duel with Malak, he had forgotten the battle that was going on about them. With a sudden pang, he remembered Bastila. Where was she? He strode through the door of Malak's chamber, stopping only to retrieve the fallen Jedi's lightsaber. The formerly shut door to the next room, where he had left Bastila, suddenly opened, and Bastila and Carth Onasi came dashing in, weapons at the ready. They stopped, suddenly, as they saw him.

"Well, what happened?" Carth blurted out.

Revan's eyes were only on Bastila's shining face, though. "It's over," he answered, "Malak is dead. I had to kill him, he wouldn't surrender or turn from the Dark Side."

Bastila gave a bit of a sniff. "I don't think anyone actually expected that he could be redeemed. I'm surprised that you would even think of trying." She then caught a glint in Revan's eye and colored deeply. "We did think that you could be redeemed, you know. True, you had turned to the Dark Side, but you had not gone massacring like Malak…

Carth interrupted, "Look, you two can go on arguing about this later. This whole place is about to come down around our ears. The others are all in the IEbon Hawk/I. Let's get out of here." Another vibration shook the space station, accompanied by a sickening lurch giving point to his arguments. Revan and Bastila nodded in agreement and started running down the hall toward the ship. Revan added the Force to their effort, and they fairly flew along, entering the Hawk in a few minutes. Quickly, Carth ran to the pilot's seat and sent the repulsor lifts singing with a practiced swipe of his hand. Seconds later, they were on their way, clearing the docking bay just as another gigantic lurch hit the Star Forge.

Then, they were out and free, the stars shining brightly and the gigantic armada of Republic ships hanging in the distance. Admiral Dodonna spotted them and radioed, "Carth, you're safe!"

He keyed his own commlink. "Wouldn't want you to start the victory party without us, Admiral," he replied exultingly.

Finally, after the rather exhausting round of celebrations and congratulations were over, Bastila's mind went back to that last little confrontation. Drink in hand, she strolled over to where Revan was chatting with Master Vandar. His eyes switched to her, and his expression changed, their clear glitter melting into softness. She felt her heart give a lurch.

"Excuse me, Master Vandar," she said winningly, "but I am going to borrow your companion for a bit. Is that all right?"

"Surely, surely, young Bastila," the little Master answered. "I am sure that you have much to discuss. Future plans perhaps?" There was a twinkle in Vandar's eye which made her wonder, but she grabbed Revan's arm and steered him toward the landing pad, where the IEbon Hawk/I rested after many journeys. She led him firmly up the boarding ramp, only releasing him when they were safely within.

She turned to him, then. "I have been thinking about what I said on the Star Forge," she blurted.

He raised one eyebrow. "About loving me with your whole heart? Don't worry, I'm not going to hold you to it. We were all under a lot of stress…"

She cut him off with a chop of the hand. "No, idiot, not about that. I do love you like that. I shouldn't, it is against the Code, but I do. It's simply a fact. I meant about how Malak couldn't be redeemed, and you could. I always knew that you could, from the first time I got that awful mask off of you and I looked on your face for the first time. You thought you were about to die, I know. Do you know what you did?"

Smiling, he replied, "No, I don't. My memories of all that time are rather hazy. Mind wipe, you know."

"You smiled," she said sternly. "You thought you were breathing your last, and you smiled, and tried to say something. I strained my ears, but with all the noise, it was hard to hear. But, I thought it was 'At last!'"

He looked at her, thoughtfully, then. "You know, I do have a faint recollection of that. I don't remember what I tried to say, though. Just that you were the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen in my life."

Astonished, she shot back, "You did not! Flatterer!"

Shaking his head, he looked bemused. "Nope. As you say, that is just a fact. That must be when our Force Bond formed."

Slowly, she replied, "Yes, that must be so. I had hated the idea of you so long, I had plotted your destruction with such detail, we had trained for that day, and then, facing you, came that explosion. Malak had fired on your ship. All our work, gone for naught. I was sure that you were dead, but I just had to get a look at your face. I pulled off your mask, expecting a fiend, and saw…you. It was like a shock went though me.

"We got you onto the IEmpire Spire/I, but Malak must have suspected something, because we hadn't gotten far when we got shot down. I thought you had perished in the crash, but I had my own troubles, you know. They got that neural scrambler on me so fast that I couldn't even get to my lightsaber. Then, the cheap thing malfunctioned and I came to my senses. There I was stuck in a cage. It maddened me. Put up as a prize in a swoop race! I had a plan, you know."

He smiled at her, then, indulgently. "I am sure you did, Bastila. You always have one. What was it?"

Reluctantly, she smiled back. "I was going to go off with my new 'Master,' Force Stun him, and sneak back into the Vulkars' base and recover my lightsaber. Then…oh, I don't know what . I'm a Jedi. I'd see what developed.

"So, I was all tensed when the winner was announced, and out of the car stepped…you. " She paused, remembering it, and resumed. "There you were, my new **owner** and intended victim, Darth Revan.

"Can you imagine what went though my mind? Was this all an elaborate hoax, concocted by you? I was flustered, but when that awful man went for you, I went for him, just by pure instinct. I did hate him, you know. There were indignities that I wanted to avenge. But, then, when the fight was over, you calmly rifled his body and handed me my lightsaber! I was flustered, and said the first thing that popped into my head. I regretted it, later, though, when you were so sweet."

He chuckled. "Ah, the high and mighty Bastila, the perfect Jedi. Carth resented it, but I didn't. As far as I was concerned, if you wanted to act like the Queen of Naboo, it was fine with me. I was just glad to see you pretty face and have you with us."

"I couldn't figure you out," she confessed. "I had hated you so long, and then, there you were, as polite and deferential as could be. I could tell, though, why it was that you had become a Master. Your fighting skills were amazing and you never lost your head. Well, we got away, and now, here we are. I promised you that we accomplished our mission and ended Malak that we would talk about … us. So, here we are."

Revan grinned at that. For some reason, he was highly enjoying this, she thought, somewhat resentfully. It had taken her days to work up her nerve towards it. What did he want of her? A quick roll in the hay, or several? Or, something more? Something…forbidden? For some reason, she felt a delicious shiver go through her.

"Here we are, indeed," he said, more seriously, but still with a smile. "My feelings about you are still the same. I love you, Bastila, with all my heart, as you said. But, we cannot be wed and remain Jedi. So, we have a dilemma."

Bastila found herself leaning forward, her mouth somewhat open in anticipation. She closed it, firmly. Not a roll in the hay, then. He had been thinking about this, too, she could tell.

His face turned serious, then. He took her right hand in both of his and stared intently into her eyes. "Bastila, I have not told you of what happened to me out on the Galactic Rim. I'm sure you think you knew why I fell to the Dark Side, but let me tell you the truth. We ran into creatures out on the Rim, the true Sith. They cast a glamour over me, I don't know how better to describe it. Malak was more fervent about it than I, but I came to believe, falsely, that the only way to defeat these creatures was the Dark Side of the Force. I tried to turn the Republic, and the Jedi Order, too, into an armed camp so that we would fight them, and we must, and win."

He paused. "They are still out there, Bastila. I sought the Star Forge to be a weapon on our side against the True Sith. But, Malak tore it from my grasp in his vain attempt to become the Galactic Overlord. I never wanted that. I think." Here, he flashed a smile at her, but quickly grew serious, again. "Let us go, with those who are capable, back to the Rim. No one will know, there, that we are man and wife, for we will be the only Jedi there. We can be together, and serve the Galaxy and the Order at the same time. What do you say?" He kept his intense gaze upon her.

Bastila was shaken. She had never expected anything like this! But, her heart pointed her in the way that her brain was struggling with.

"Yes, my dear, yes!" she finally managed. "As you say, that is where the Order and the Galaxy needs us. Does the Council know?"

"Only Master Vandar," he replied. "I don't want the others to hear, yet, until we are gone. There is too much chance of betrayal. I now remember that I have, hidden, on Malachor V, a superdreadnought, the last thing the Star Forge made under my command. We need only go and get it."

"Will we not need a crew?" she asked, practically.

"The Malachorians will provide one," he answered simply. There is a Sith Academy, there, and they are used to doing as they are told."

She jumped a bit. "A Sith Academy? Why there, then?"

He smiled ruefully. "Well, I was a Sith Lord when I stashed it, there, you know. It is not connected to the Academy, it is my personal base."

She put her arms around him, then. "We shall go, then, together, and make up for our falls. We shall not fall again, shall we?"

"We shall not." He kissed her, then. To her, it was like a door opened in her heart, and she finally knew it.

"My love!" she finally got out. "You will be my Master in love, and I will be your Padawan."

"Agreed," he chuckled. "But you shall not be my pupil, long. I fear that you will reach Master rank

before too long."

"Yes," she replied, "I shall be most diligent about my studies." They kissed again, and then did not speak for a long time.


End file.
